Rants about Chicago fans unjustified

Whiners from Bradley to a blogger upset about national anthem at Hawks games there’s simple message: Get a life

March 10, 2010|By David Haugh | In the Wake of the News

From a Detroiter writing on a blog to an ex-Cub living in a fog, Chicago is feeling more dissed this week than Lindsay Lohan.

I think what connects the outbursts is a common plea for attention, so sue me.

First blogger Rob Otto on the Web site MLive.com called the tradition of Blackhawks fans cheering during Jim Cornelison's version of the national anthem "one of the most awful,'' in sports. Then poor Milton Bradley whined again to ESPN about how hard Wrigley Field can be for black players and implied someone in the Cubs organization sent him anonymous hate mail.

Bears free-agent signee Julius Peppers is going to have to buy a few more rounds of expensive champagne just to get the good local sports vibe flowing again.

These guys need a Rahm Emanuel finger-to-the-chest message about Chicago's sports culture. The naked truth is Chicago can be many things when it comes to supporting its teams: provincial, insecure, idiosyncratic, proud and intense. But an unpatriotic, racist sports city, this is not.

Let's look at Bradley's attack first because he has been so busy not talking about the past he sought to put behind him that, by the time you read this, he may have ripped Ron Santo for being a pessimist.

If Bradley heard one racial taunt or read a single racist letter as former Cubs LaTroy Hawkins and Jacque Jones also claimed, that's one too many. But as more than one African-American Cubs player has pointed out after past suggestions of Wrigley racism, those hateful fans represent the exception more than the rule.

Instead of following the example of Jackie Robinson and others by using whatever racial tension he felt as motivation, Bradley decided to use it as an excuse. Success would have shut up any idiots making Bradley's life the prison he said it was. He failed. Enough already.

If Bradley believed playing on the North Side can be so tough on African-American players who aren't Hall of Famers, why did Bradley's agents, Sam and Seth Levinson, allow fellow client Marlon Byrd to sign with the Cubs? Why did Derrek Lee, one of the most popular modern Cubs of any race, recently express a desire to retire here?

Bradley's assertions that Cubs fans were roughest on black players must have drawn a chuckle out of Todd Hundley. The rancor toward Kevin Gregg wasn't a bias against guys with two first names. It was a response to awful pitching. Was the vitriol toward Aaron Miles last year because people objected to his beard or his .185 batting average?

In sports, hate is blind. Bradley incited the wrath of so many fans simply because he stunk, and the more excuses he offers, the longer the stench lingers. He was a lousy hitter and a worse teammate.

Cubs players reacted as unified as one would expect but the best response would be a fastball in the thigh if the Mariners dare put Bradley in the lineup when both teams play March 28 in a spring-training exhibition.

As for Otto and his angst over the anthem before Hawks games, when a USO soldier stands next to Cornelison as he sings, the blogger called the pre-game ovation "misguided patriotism.''

"There are specific ways you are supposed to act,'' Otto said Wednesday on WGN-AM.

To support his contention, Otto cited Title 36, Chapter 10 of U.S. Code. It says, "all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.''

Full disclosure: I am usually an arms-at-the-sides guy during the anthem. Get the stockade ready.

The point is it's silly to interpret those codes literally. Take Title 18, Chapter 3: "Whoever knowingly creates or possesses a depiction of animal cruelty &#8230; for commercial gain, shall be fined or imprisoned.''

Technically, that means Otto's Red Wings violate the code he clings to every time they score a goal and the octopi come flying onto the ice at Joe Louis Arena.

Ross Docksey, chairman and CEO of the USO of Illinois board of directors, served proudly in the Army. His brothers belonged to the Navy. His father and grandfather were veterans. His wife, who became a Hawks fan after learning of the anthem tradition, has a son currently stationed in Iraq and a brother and father with solid military records from Vietnam and World War II, respectively.

"I can remember a time when people in this country responded to the military with alarming negativity,'' Docksey said. "From that frame of reference, the way the Blackhawks and their fans react to the anthem is the best I've ever seen anywhere.''

Maybe Otto needs to see it instead of listen to it on the radio. That's what he did Sunday before writing in his blog, "It makes my skin crawl every time I hear it.''